Burkina Faso: African Countries.

Flag description:

Location: West Africa

Geographic coordinates:

Climate: The tropical climate has
rainy (June-October) and dry (November-May) seasons, with rainfall averaging
1,015-1,270 mm (40-50 in) annually in the south and only 510 mm (20 in) in
the north. Extreme variations in rainfall led to severe droughts in 1969-74
and 1981-83, with large losses of life and livestock.

Temperatures range
from 10 deg C (50 deg F) in the early dry season to 40 deg C (104 deg F)
just before the rains. Vegetation varies by ecological zone: there are fruit
trees and some forests and woodlands in the centre, and desert flora and
scrub vegetation in the north

History: The Mossi arrived in this
area in the 11th to 13th centuries and established powerful kingdoms,
including Ouagadougou, Tenkodogo, and Yatenga.

These linked kingdoms were centres of trade
and contact between trans-Saharan traders and the forest kingdoms to the
south. The Mossi strongly resisted the expansionist Islamic Mali (12th to
15th centuries) and Songhai (14th to 16th centuries) empires.

France
asserted control over the area in the 1890s, dividing it among other French
colonies and reconstituting it within its present borders from 1919 to 1932
and again from 1947.

A Mossi-dominated political party headed by
Maurice Yameogo led Upper Volta to independence in 1960. Political life has
since been dominated by the small educated elite, military officers, and
labour unions. The nation's extreme poverty has made it difficult to meet the
demands of all these groups, contributing to increasing political
instability.

Yameogo was overthrown by the military in 1966 after
trade-union protests. Under the benign hand of Lt.-Col. (later Gen.)
Sangoule Lamizana (president, 1966-80), Upper Volta enjoyed more civil
liberties than most other African countries. It had a civilian legislature
from 1970 to early 1974 and again from 1978 to 1980, when renewed union
pressures and military impatience with squabbling civilian politicians led
to a coup.

A politicized officer corps mounted new coups
in 1982 and 1983, when Capt. Thomas Sankara and a young, radical officer
group seized power and sought to revolutionize society. Common people were
encouraged to create Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) in
cities and villages in order to build schools and clinics, run local
cooperatives, and exercise local power.

The CDRs and Sankara sought to
divert funds from the costly urban civil service to rural development, and
Sankara came to symbolize popular democracy. A border conflict with Mali
that sparked military confrontations was settled amicably in 1986.

Disputes among the ruling group led to
Sankara's assassination by his deputy, Capt. Blaise Compaore, in October
1987. This act and the new military government provoked popular revulsion
and anger.

Marxism-Leninism was abandoned as the official ideology. A new
constitution approved by voters in June 1991 reduced the powers of the
presidency and provided for direct multiparty elections. Campaore and his
party won the presidential election of December 1991 and held the nation's
first legislative elections in 14 years, held May 1992.